Japan is a bewildering place with a strange mix of old and new, traditional and ultra-modern. Seeing kimono-clad women on a bullet-train talking on cellphones and sumo wrestlers riding around on scooters can be disorienting, but it is part of Japan’s charm.

Take today for an example. This morning we went up to the gravesite of my wife’s great-grandparents and grandmother. The cemetery is on the hill behind Maruyama Park, overlooking Kyoto. The view is fantastic. I wish I had brought my camera.

As we trekked up the hill through Japanese archways and Buddhist temple grounds, surrounded by greenery slightly dampened by a light rain from earlier in the day, music emanated from just beyond the trees on the right side of the path. It took me a moment to remember the lyrics, but the electric slide guitar gave away the tune: Stand By Your Man by Tammy Wynette. Slowly making our way up the temple path, twisting through generations of graves, we were accompanied by a live band just down the valley singing country and western hits from the past. “Only in Japan,” I thought!

Luckily, the band took a break as we went through the rituals of visiting a gravesite. Lady YH’s grandmother died before we were married, and I only met her on one occasion. She was very strict with me because she thought that before I came round to visit the home, we should be at least engaged. In fact we were, but hadn’t revealed it to the family yet. I sat under her glare, but was unable to speak up. This visit to her grave was the first time I would be introduced to her as her grand-daughter’s husband. It was a pretty big deal, so the break from the music was appreciated.

But as we started heading down the mountain Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues floated up the small valley. Craziness! I really wish I had brought my camera. I could have taken a video and recorded the sound like Curzon did in his China travelogue.

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « When few stood against many
• » Inconvenient Propaganda